Day 637
Panama
By an awesome piece of luck, next to the hotel Rosa and family had dropped us off at was a bike shop, Jbike Repair. They had the part we needed and even gave us a second hand one as a spare, thanks!
So, dried out, bike working, we headed off towards Panama City. Now Tom and I normally avoid cities, cycling into them means masses of traffic, noise, fumes and danger. The road to Panama didn’t disappoint, and a road-widening scheme just added to the chaos. Traffic was backed up for miles and the hard shoulder was often blocked, but we slowly made our way through. The queuing traffic was great, as soon as they spotted us they would inch left and let us through. We had an Airbnb booked for 7 whole nights in the old town, no packing up and moving on for a full week! To say we were excited was a major understatement.
First though we had to get there, and this meant a ride over the Bridge of Americas. The bridge spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal, opened the year I was born back in 1962, and us old girls seem to be wearing pretty well. It is a major link into the city so we expected heavy traffic and we got it! Again though, the drivers were considerate and our first sight of the Panama Canal, with the stunning back drop of the city’s skyscrapers was pretty awesome. Within minutes we were riding into the area known as Casco Viejo or San Felipe. This was to be our base, for, did I mention it, 7 whole nights!
The area is going through a period of gentrification. Buildings that have slowly been allowed to fall into a derelict state, often just the outer wall left, but are being restored to their original colonial era condition. The same is happening to many of the much older buildings, the churches, civic buildings, and the area around the waterfront. The amount of work is mind blowing and the results stunning, though it is often displacing local residents who have sometimes lived there whole lives in this area.
Tom spent a couple of hours with his camera trying to catch the essence of what we were seeing. Brian, Tom’s dad, is an artist and he was inspired over the years to create fantastic paintings reflecting urban decay. Tom clearly has his dad’s artistic eye, and we both wished Brian was here with us, Panama City is definitely his kind of town.
This morning we cycled out, without pannier bags and explored the cycleways of the city. So far we are loving our time here and cannot wait to discover more.
